I find Capital District beer geeks tend to love or hate the local beer scene with very little gray area. Most of what I hear is something along the lines of:
“Oh my god, did you try Brewery X’s beer? It’s delicious. How did they do that?!”
Or: “Ugh, I hate that place. All their beers are rife with diacetyl or acetaldehyde. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
Or: “That place was great until their head brewer left.”
Or: “Ever since they got a new brewer their beers have been great.”

It seems like everyone I run across, especially in the comments section of this blog, has a strong opinion one way or another. That’s not to say everyone is a beer hipster or a snob (although some are), just that when it comes to beer made in Albany and the surrounding area, I rarely hear beer drinkers describe it as “meh.”

I hope it’s clear from the reviews I’ve written of local brewpubs and other beer-centric establishments, that I’m a fan of the Capital District craft beer scene. I started a group on meetup.com in 2012 that was devoted to exploring beer venues in the area. I also started a “like page” on Facebook and a Twitter account to promote beer-related news and events in the Albany area.

A collage of some of the best beer destinations in the area.

But enough about me, I want to hear from the readers:

What’s your favorite local brewpub?

What’s your favorite locally-brewed beer? (i.e. a specific brew)

What’s your favorite local craft beer-centric bar or restaurant?

Are you excited about the fact we’re getting several new breweries (e.g. Ravens Head, Rare Form Brewing, Honey Hollow Brewery) or worried about market saturation?

Do you find the average person in this area has good taste and is knowledgeable about beer?

Are there any individual persons you credit with making our beer scene what it is today?

How does the Capital District craft beer scene compare with other markets of similar size?

How would you describe the selection of commercial beer that’s available here?

What’s missing from our local beer scene?

What improvements would you like to see?

What is the reputation of the Capital District’s beer scene? How do outsiders perceive this area?

What can we do to bolster our image?

If beer-loving friends visit from out of town, where would you be most likely to take them?

13 Responses

1 Brown’s
2 Honestly I don’t have one. I would say Brown’s Oatmeal Stout but it’s hit and miss. When it hits, it’s great.
3 The Ruck hands down.
4 Super excited about the new breweries and hoping that some fresh entries to the market will mean some exciting new products and maybe even encourage existing breweries to push the limits.
5 I think the average person does have good taste but maybe isn’t adventurous enough or knowledgeable enough to try different beers. The classic example is dark beer; “I don’t like dark beer, it’s too heavy.” is the most infuriating statement a patron can make.
6 The team at The Ruck and the guys at Remarkable Liquids.
7 I think we’re on par with similar markets; it definitely seems like we’re an attractive market for breweries to distribute to and the new breweries will be a huge boost.
8 In line with the last comment, I think we are almost spoiled with how many options we have and the great beer that we get in the Capital District.
9 An amazing brewery
10 I’d like to see wider offerings at bars and restaurants and I’d like people to educate themselves on who is actually making their beer.
11 Nothing special but a few bright spots.
12 Be beer lovers, not beer snobs. Never bash someone for ordering a Blue Moon (or any beer frankly).
13 After 6PM, The Ruck, before 6PM, The Shmaltz Brewery.

1. Pump Station
2. Pump Station Barleywine
3. Bier Abbey
4. Not worried, the best ones will live on (hopefully all)
5. Most certainly not, most people are woefully ignorant
6. Old Man Mahar
7. Honestly pretty pathetic. Our brewpubs are mediocre in the general scheme and our local breweries like Schmaltz put out mid to low level craft beer. The coney island series is an abomination upon the lord and Talon Barleywine may indeed be the worst beer I have ever consumed.
8. Crappy but getting better. 5 years ago it was the worst I’ve been to but thanks to smaller distributors popping up the larger ones are forced to respond.
9. The best beer bars are in Schenectady and Troy and I live in Albany. We need a great one here!
10. Albany beer bar, truly knowledgeable people who can see the large picture and offer criticism
11. Not a great reputation. We are importers, not exporters.
12. Start off by not propagating incorrect information. Lets get knowledgeable, not buy into hype, and not blow smoke up the butts of local brewers so that they are forced to grow.
13. Bier Abbey, Ruck, or City Beer Hall if I was forced to choose an albany bar without a doubt. Any other answers are wrong.

1. Albany Pump Station – I love the industrial setting and concept, wide open space that never feels overly packed like smaller pubs such as Browns and Druthers can, top notch food
2. Brown’s Whiskey Porter – complex beer that hits on many different flavor notes.
3. The Ruck – one of the most solid dive bars I’ve been to, they put the beer front and center unlike City Beer Hall which distracts you with free “pizza”, a mechanical bull, hookah nights etc
4. Since I live in Cohoes I’m really excited for Ravens Head being right around the corner and I like having a variety of choices in brewpubs that will push each other to make better beer so market saturation isn’t a concern from my perspective
5. Hanging out with college aged students biases my perspective towards people lacking a general knowledge about beer and what it entails other than your standard fizzy yellow beer.
6. George de Piro, the Ruck staff, the Browns staff and the Brew Crew staffs have all shaped the taste of this area.
7. I haven’t traveled enough to compare to other markets but within central NY we are eons ahead of Syracuse where people think Wegmans is the only place to obtain craft beer.
8. Our distribution seems fairly good, I obviously wish we could bring more over from the West Coast (New Belgium, Russian River) or Midwest (3Floyds, Bourbon County Stout variants) but I can get a lot of what I desire at the local craft beer store. Again comparing to other areas in Central NY we have a great selection.
9. See breweries listed in point 8. A NY-centric craft beer bar similar to Excelsior with more space possibly in the suburbs (Latham/Colonie area is in need of something other than Wolfs 1-11).
10. See point 9. More targeting the college student to educate them about things other than fizzy yellow beer. Have Matt Baumgartner step up his craft beer game to improve the selection in his bars.
11. Good but not great.
12. Encourage more market growth through legislation and community action. Don’t criticize someone solely based on their beer selection.
13. Troy: The Ruck, Browns, and Finnbars. Albany: Pump Station, City Beer Hall, Lionheart, Wolffs Biergarten.

1. Crossroads or Pump Station
2. Outrage IPA
3. The Ruck without question
4. Definitely excited. Always down to try new breweries
5. The average person? No, but then again I don’t think the average person anywhere is all that knowledgeable about beer
6. The Ruck, Brown’s and the Brew Crew staff have all been a big part, IMO
7. To the places I’ve been, I think our area is pretty good. We have access to a ton of great beer, there are some great craft beer-centric bars, and some of the breweries are putting out some great beers. Include the fact that we have all those great Vermont breweries within a very short trip, I’d say we’re pretty lucky here.
8. I think, with the exception of a few west coast and midwest breweries that aren’t distributed here, we’ve got a great selection.
9. I think we could use a few more bars like the Ruck. Maybe a world class brewery right in the immediate area, but that’s asking a lot.
10. Pretty much what I said with 9
11. Not great, but if you expand a few hours outside of Albany each way, there are some fantastic, world-class breweries
12. Help other people become beer lovers, without being pushy or a snob about it. I’m constantly trying to expand friends’ tastes. I always try to bring something fantastic for people to try at social gatherings.
13. Depends on the occasion, probably one of Browns, Crossraods or The Pump Station. If we’re just going out for beers, the Ruck is always a hit.

1. A tossup between Brown’s and Albany Pump Station.
2. Brown’s Whiskey Barrel Porter
3. The Bier Abbey and The Ruck.
4. A little bit of both. If they’re going to be making great beer – yeah I can’t wait to try it.
5. The average person? No. But people who know their beer around here definitely know their beer.
6. You have to consider Jim Mahar a founding father of the craft beer scene in this area. I think the owners/managers of Oliver’s and Westmere Beverage have a lot to do with our great selection, too. George Collentine and Jeremy Irving should be credited with bringing great beer to Schenectady.
7. I think we’re above average in selection for a market of this size. But I’m not sure how good my frame of reference is.
8. Pretty great, actually. I haven’t had to make a beer mail trade in literally years because we can get pretty much everything I want now.
9. More of the Bell’s portfolio, Great Lakes, Three Floyds, New Belgium, Terrapin, Cigar City.
10. As far as I can tell, the western end of the Capital Region (Schoharie, Montgomery, and Fulton counties) are craft beer deserts. It’d be nice to see someone bring good beer to these areas.
11. As far as beer brewed here goes – outsiders tend to think of it as “meh.” But as far as available commercial beers go it seems like I’m getting offers for trades on a daily basis.
12. Our local snobs (we all know who they are), REALLY need to calm down and realize this is Albany – not Manhattan, London or San Diego.
13. To make an evening of it, I’d take them to The Bier Abbey. If it’s just a quick meetup, any of the craft beer bars in the downtown area will suffice.

1. Without a doubt the best “local” brewpub in our area is Newburgh Brewing. If that’s not local enough for you I would say Keegan Ales in Kingston.
2. By far the best beer you can get fresh and local is Joe Mama’s Milk
3. I must forthright by saying I work at The Ruck so obviously this is my favorite.
4. The promise of new breweries coming to the area makes me very excited. I think new competition will force existing breweries in the area to step up their game and really pay attention to quality control.
5. I would say that the average joe who walks into a bar in the capital region isn’t extremely well versed in the craft beer culture. However I am finding more and more people are opening their horizons to new beers they have never thought to try before.
6. I without a doubt can say the following people have greatly influenced beer in the capital region: Greg Pasicznyk, Scott Delcore, Jeremy Irving, Jared Kingsley, and Rich Hayes. For those of you who don’t know who these people are they are the men behind the curtain who work on the distribution level.
7. I would say that overall the Capital District is a little bit ahead of places like Syracuse and Providence for beer, but we are way behind places like Burlington or Portland, ME.
8. The commercial beer available in this market is actually really good. Just in the past two years we have seen an influx of amazing breweries come into our market. However, more places need to concentrate on selling them.
9. Our local beer scene is missing that one brewery who is going to make such amazing beer that people from all over the country are going to travel to our area to get some.
10. To truly embrace the craft beer culture of places like Denver, Boston and San Francisco more restaurants need to step up there beer lists to include more than just Bud, Miller and Coors.
11. I would say most people think the Capital Region is a great place to stop on their way to visit Hill Farmstead or The Alchemist. But beyond that people are not flocking to this area to spend a weekend drinking amazing beer.
12. To bolster our image we need more servers to actually become knowledgeable about beer. Programs like Cicerone training are great resources for bar and restaurant owners to get there staff educated.
13. I think by now you can figure out that we would be drinking at The Ruck.

As a recent transplant from a major metro area, I was pleasantly surprised at the local beer scene. I haven’t been to too many places yet but I really liked the selection at the Bier Abbey; I lost an hour or so at Oliver’s taking inventory on the shelves; and I get a total kick out of the gas station growler exchange even existing. Hell, one can even pick up a bottle of something decent at all the local supermarkets. For it’s size I think the Capital District has a lot of really nice beer things going for it, with more on the horizon. As an outlander I find the natives’ attitude of thinking of Albany, Schenectady and Troy as being on the opposite ends of the earth very amusing as I used to drive much longer distances to do things on a regular basis. I look forward to exploring all the local beer offerings.

1. Pump Station has great food and solid beer. Always relaxing and the floor is really well spaced, you aren’t on top of each other. Place looks great too, really cool to look at.
2. I really enjoyed Death of a contract brewer from Shmaltz that I had a couple weekends ago. Nothing really offered like it around these parts.
3. Bier Abbey, incredible tap selection every single day, constant rotation is also fun.
4. I am, I don’t think our market is near saturation and I hope this will bring a little more variety, some stepping up of other breweries, and maybe even some collaboration?
5. I would say the average person anywhere is still just not educated enough on craft beer, my point of view may be skewed though from the younger demographic that I am a part of.
6. Jim Mahar, anyone who is involved in any of the local beverage centers (westmere, olivers, latham, Delmar, etc.)
7. I think in compared to markets our own size we’re doing pretty well and we’re on the upswing, people are always comparing us to big markets like New York City, which is unrealistic.
8. Within the past year or two it’s gotten top notch, the selection is more than enough at this point. People will always want to bring in things like Russian River, Three Floyds, etc. but we have our own treasures here. That’s almost the fun in beer, the mystery behind beers you can’t get as easily as others. Makes it almost like a game.
9. I would like to see us be able to get more of the Northeast beers before we start trying to bring in things from the west coast. There are plenty of beers from Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania that we still can’t get here in the capital region that are treasures.
10. More craft oriented bars around the capital region, or maybe just to beef up the selection at the current bars. It shouldn’t be a chore to find a bar close enough to you with a good craft selection.
11. I think decent, but we don’t have that big world class brewery in our immediate area that others have the privilege of having.
12. Be open minded, promote craft beer but don’t put yourself on a pedestal. In the end, people drink what they want to drink. Make craft beer comfortable and WELCOMING for the average beer drinker.
12. Depends on their taste, if I’m going with a bar I’d travel out to the Bier Abbey, If I was trying to go to a brewpub I’d go Pump Station or Browns, both pretty safe bets that they’ll dig something they offer and good food.

1. Since Mahar’s in Albany closed, the Ruck
2. I just enjoyed Schmaltz’s Hops Manna so that’s my new favorite, but I’m a Lagunitas girl (which is made in California)
3. Honestly? Bootlegger’s or the Palais. They have pool tables is my reason.
4. I am! I think everyone has a chance at making a good go of it, success-wise. I’m pretty excited about an acquaintance’s brewery that opened up in Penn Yan called “Abandon Brewing Co”
5. This question is moot, as I tend to hang around knowledgable beer drinkers by coincidence.
6. Not really, but I like the group of folks that I know who are involved in it and I’ve learned a lot from them.
7. Wouldn’t know, tbh. I’ve travelled, but not enough centered around brewpubs to make an informed decision.
8.Pretty fair
9.We could use a google calendar that keeps track of area pub events.
10. see above
11. I’d say we have a pretty respectable beer scene. A friend of mine visited from England and seemed to enjoy the variety of establishments we’ve got locally.
12. Always Be Closing
13. I usually take them to the Ruck because of the variety of beers on tap as well as the fine wings they have there.

1.The Pump Station.
2. Crossroads’ Outrage IPA (assuming we can count Athens as “local”). Runners-up: Black Watch IPA (if we can count Lake George), CH Evans’ Kick-Ass Brown and Brown’s Whiskey Porter.
3. The Merry Monk in Albany.
4. Not worried about market saturation; excitement will come only when I taste their beers.
5. Yes, I find the average person in this area has good taste and is knowledgeable about beer, but then, all my friends drink craft beer, not BMC.
6. The original owner of Mahars deserves a lot of credit; there was a time when this area was a craft beer wilderness, when Mahars was the only place to go for then-obscure offerings and the best craft options in most bars were Saranac Pale Ale and Sam Adams Boston Lager. We’ve come a long way since then.
7. Not sure, but I suspect it’s decent.
8. The selection of commercial beer that’s available here is decent. Not great, but solid.
9. What’s missing from our local beer scene? Some beers that are distributed in other parts of NYS but not the Capital Region, such as Great Lakes….
10. I’d like to see beverage centers remove dated/stale product – and/or heavily discount it before removing it.
11. Not sure, but I think it’s pretty good for our size.
12. What can we do to bolster our image? I’ll leave that to the marketing professionals.
13.If beer-loving friends visit from out of town, where would you be most likely to take them? Depends. If they like Belgian beer, then Merry Monk in Albany (Schenectady is too far for me); if IPAs and other ales, then City Beer Hall or the Lionheart (depending on their age and the day/night of the week); if lighter stuff, then Wolff’s Biergarten; if they’re just looking for a quiet place to have a good pint of British Ale, then the Olde English in Quackenbush Square. If they want dinner too, then the Pump Station. . . . The night would end with a cellar selection back at my house. . . .

1.What’s your favorite local brewpub?
Crossroads Brewing. Just wish it was a little closer to Albany.
2.What’s your favorite locally-brewed beer? (i.e. a specific brew)
Old Musty
3.What’s your favorite local craft beer-centric bar or restaurant?
Bier Abbey, though many bars and restaurants have stepped up their craft beer game of late.
4.Are you excited about the fact we’re getting several new breweries (e.g. Ravens Head, Rare Form Brewing, Honey Hollow Brewery) or worried about market saturation?
Tempered excitement. Here’s hoping it isn’t just more of the same.
5.Do you find the average person in this area has good taste and is knowledgeable about beer?
The average person has good taste, though all taste is personal. There are a lot of people who THINK they are knowledgeable about beer.
6.Are there any individual persons you credit with making our beer scene what it is today?
Have to give props to Mr. Mahar. He started it all.
7.How does the Capital District craft beer scene compare with other markets of similar size?
8.How would you describe the selection of commercial beer that’s available here?
I think it’s great and getting better by the press release!
9.What’s missing from our local beer scene?
One real top notch brewery
10.What improvements would you like to see?
11.What is the reputation of the Capital District’s beer scene? How do outsiders perceive this area?
I have know idea and don’t worry about such things.
12.What can we do to bolster our image?
13.If beer-loving friends visit from out of town, where would you be most likely to take them?
Westmere Beverage for bottles and Bier Abbey for draft.

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